Mission & Justice

Ian Munro; 14/6/08

From Barack Obama’s pastor, to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, to Mike Huckabee’s Southern Baptist roots, religion is the constant in America’s choosing of a president. Racism, sexism, health policy, the economy and Iraq have their moments, but religion renews itself with every fresh controversy. Even John McCain, relatively secure as presumed Republican candidate, has jettisoned a preacher whose endorsement became politically untenable. Yet the most influential and enduring religious force in the country - elitist Christian fundamentalism - is mostly unsighted and rarely remarked upon, according to the writer Jeff Sharlet.

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Carol Nader; 7/6/08

The contentious character test that has led to the cancellation of 250 visas in the past four years should be urgently amended to make the system clearer and fairer, the Federal Government has been urged. Government figures show there have been 68 visas cancelled on character grounds this financial year to the end of May. Of the 27 cancellations based on character since the new Government came to power, all but one were by the Immigration Department. In only one case the Immigration Minister was the decision maker. There have been 26 visas refused on character grounds so far this financial year to the end of March, and 178 in 2006-07. While the numbers are a small proportion of the numbers of visa refusals and cancellations, there is debate around the fairness of the test in deciding what constitutes good character. Most cancellations and refusals based on character involve people who have committed serious criminal offences including child sex offences and murder.

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2/6/08

The people of Guadalcanal are not prepared for the Government’s planned national reconciliation because of failures by successive governments to address the Guadalcanal bona fide demands. The statement, largely directed at the government, was made by the Leader of the National Parliamentary Official Independent Group and Central Guadalcanal MP, Peter Shanel. In a recent interview Shanel said that he does not see how a national reconciliation would be achieved when key issues on both sides of the conflict are still to be addressed by successive governments. “The Guadalcanal people are not ready for the national reconciliation because they are still waiting on the Government to address their demands which have been ignored by previous governments and the current government,” he said.

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24/5/08

The chairman of the nation’s largest Aboriginal land council, the Northern Land Council, has issued a public apology to the organisation’s principal legal officer. In a statement yesterday, chairman Wali Wunungmurra said the NLC executive council had reviewed allegations of bullying levelled against lawyer Ron Levy by a female anthropologist. The allegations led to Mr Levy’s sacking from his position at the NLC in February, later found by a court to be unlawful. Mr Wunungmurra said the allegations that prompted Mr Levy’s suspension, including that he improperly accessed the anthropologist’s personnel file and improperly tried to influence an investigation into her allegations, had been found to be untrue by the NLC executive council.

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Sian Powell; 17/5/08

Naldo Rei was nine years old when he crept into the jungle on his first mission for the East Timorese resistance movement. Like so many in East Timor, he spent decades fighting for freedom. Now a 32-year-old public information officer in the troubled new nation, Rei says the 24 years of danger and bloody struggle have yet to deliver peace and stability. The tiny country is now riven by regional loyalties. Tens of thousands of dispirited East Timorese live in tents, fearing to rebuild their burned and destroyed homes. Worse still, earlier this year rebels tried to kill the East Timorese President, Jose Ramos Horta. “We wanted peace, stability, a democratic society,” Rei said. “We don’t want to live in violence and fearing everyone all the time.”

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2/5/08

As the military continues to get the poor and the illiterate to vote in favour of the constitution by using threats and tricks, in the cities the ruling junta is pressuring voters to cast a favourable ballot if they want to get their papers. Sources in fact have told AsiaNews that in government offices officials are telling those who want to renew their driver’s licence or register a new car that they must vote Yes in advance polls if they want their papers. Elsewhere in Yangon and Mandalay residents are complaining that the military regime is pulling tricks out of its hat that verge on the ridiculous. Government officials are actually telling people that they must take part in referendum trial runs so that they can be shown how to vote by placing an X on the ‘Yes’ box; however, once this is done the supposedly fake ballots are taken and participants are told that they don’t have to go to vote on 10 May, the day when Myanmar’s generals expect their new constitution to be approved, which many human rights activists and the country’s pro-democracy opposition see as a simple tool to legitimise the status quo.

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15/4/08

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has backed a Brisbane school’s decision to turn down a request by gay students to bring male partners to a school dance. A number of Anglican Church Grammar School’s 215 Year 12 students want to take their gay partners to their end-of-year dance on June 19. However, under current policy, they may only attend the ball with a female partner. Dr Jensen said he supported civil rights for gay people but homosexuality in the eyes of the church was wrong.

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